The Calcutta high court on Wednesday admitted for hearing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's election petition challenging victory of Bharatiya Janata Party's Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in the assembly elections and ordered preservation of all records pertaining to it.
Justice Shampa Sarkar directed that Banerjee's petition will be taken up for hearing on August 12.
The bench directed issuance of notice to Leader of Opposition in the Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari in the meantime.
The court ordered preservation of all records and devices related to the polls in Nandigram.
In the hotly contested election at the high-profile Nandigram constituency, Adhikari had defeated Banerjee by a margin of 1,956 votes.
"Pending the decision of this case, all documents, election papers, devices and video recordings etc connected with the election which is under challenge before this Court, shall be preserved by the concerned authority who is the custodian of the papers and documents," Justice Sarkar directed.
Justice Sarkar held that as per a report received by her bench from the high court administration, the election petition was filed in compliance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
"As per the office report, the election petition does not suffer from any defect as provided in section 86(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951," the bench said.
The court also directed the Registrar to serve a copy of the order upon the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal.
Meanwhile, Adhikari has moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of Banerjee's petition challenging his election from Nandigram constituency outside West Bengal.
The BJP leader seeks transfer of Banerjee's plea, pending in the Calcutta high court, outside the state, lawyer Kabir Bose said.
Adhikari, a former close aide of the chief minister, who joined BJP in 2020, is presently holding the post of the leader of opposition in the state assembly.
Earlier on July 7, Justice Kausik Chanda of the high court had recused himself from hearing Banerjee's petition challenging the election of Adhikari from Nandigram.
Justice Chanda released the election petition of Banerjee from his court.
Seeking his recusal, it was claimed that Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP till his appointment as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 2015 and since the election of a BJP candidate has been challenged, there were apprehensions of bias in the adjudication of the election petition.
Justice Chanda had said that he was never a convenor of the BJP Legal Cell, but had appeared in many cases representing the party before the Calcutta high court.
Banerjee's counsel had earlier written to the Acting Chief Justice of the high court seeking reassignment of her election petition to another bench.
